Bhubaneswar: The Budget Session of Odisha Legislative Assembly commenced here Thursday with Governor Ganeshi Lal delivering the customary address to the house.
On his arrival, the governor was accorded Guard of Honour. As expected, no sooner did the governor start his address the Congress legislators started creating ruckus inside the House over the Kotia issue. Later in the midst of the governor’s speech, the opposition members tried to corner the ruling BJD by bringing up the topics of law and order and the rising fuel prices. Both the BJP and Congress MLAs walked out of the House during the governor’s speech.
While addressing the House, the governor talked on Odisha making a transformative shift in Solid Waste Management segment. He also mentioned about Odisha getting the award of ‘Fastest Moving State’ in the Swachh Survekshan-2020 for its performance. Besides, six cities of Odisha have found a place in the top 20 rankings of Swachh Survekshan-2020.
Lal informed about the success of the government in completing houses transparently through a robust mechanism and taking innovative steps like providing incentives to beneficiaries for early completion of houses and tagging field functionaries with specific beneficiaries. During 2020-21, about 2.8 lakh houses have been constructed following these innovative ways, he added.
Informing about the commencement of second phase of Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G) from April 2020, he said the Odisha government has spent around Rs 7,500 crore over 66 lakh individual household toilets. The state has been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF) during September 2019. To ensure universal sanitation access more than 747 Community Sanitary Complexes have also been constructed, he said.
Regarding the law and order situation Odisha, the governor said that state has remained ‘peaceful in 2020’. Due to the proactive role of the police, major law and order crises were avoided. The police handled the COVID-19 situation successfully. A total of 49 police personnel have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Similarly, 940 police personnel have donated plasma.
PNN